How Virginia Teen Found a Family with Axios' Jim VandeHei After He 'Dropped Into Our Laps' (Exclusive)

"It takes a village, and Kelvin had a village of people who supported him,” VandeHei says

Adoption was not at the top of the to-do list for journalist Jim VandeHei when his son’s former soccer pal Kelvin Martinez Membreno needed a fresh start and a new home.

As VandeHei recounts to PEOPLE and in his latest book, his family had known Kelvin since Kelvin was a young boy. But they mostly lost contact after his father died — until 2018, when Kelvin “dropped into our laps.” 

He was 14, he had run away from his biological family, was flirting with a dangerous lifestyle and was asking if they would take him in. 

Four days after the VandeHeis worked it out with his relatives, Kelvin was at their door with a box that contained his papers and birth certificate and a suitcase with all of his clothes. The family adopted him in 2019.

“You have to go in with a clear eye that there's no easy fairy tale to foster care or adoption. It is hard, but it's also beautiful and highly rewarding,” VandeHei, 53, tells PEOPLE. “If I were to die tomorrow, I would say [adopting Kelvin] was the most meaningful decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

The Politico and Axios co-founder — one of Washington’s prominent media personalities — recently started the Zotheka Foundation with his family, helping low-income kids have access to education, vocational training and, most importantly, mentoring.

VandeHei also has a new self-help book, Just the Good Stuff, with proceeds going toward the foundation. The book includes a brief chapter titled “Miracle Man,” which was first featured as his newsletter on Axios’ site, about how Kelvin, the orphaned son of two El Salvadoran refugees, was taken in.

Kelvin lost his mother at 3. At 9, his father died of cancer. Over the years, he had also become close with the VandeHei family — a winding bond that eventually brought him back into their lives for good.

As a kid, Kelvin first found a friend in his soccer teammate James VandeHei, Jim’s son, now 19; and Jim’s wife, Autumn VandeHei, 51, often transported Kelvin and had him as a guest in their house. The night his dad died, Kelvin contacted James and asked to stay overnight with them.

“I couldn’t sleep thinking about how much my life was going to change and feeling helpless,” Kelvin tells PEOPLE about that first night at the VandeHeis’ Virginia home. “I was questioning God, if he was real and if he was, why did he do such a thing to me?”

Sophie VandeHei was just 11 and says that she and her brother distinctly remember that night. They made grilled cheese sandwiches for Kelvin and Kelvin’s older brother and sobbed afterwards.

“It was the first time I really felt my heart hurt,” says Sophie, now 21.

After his dad’s death, Kelvin returned to his biological family, including his brother Bryan, 20, his cousin Diana and his uncle. But over the next few years, his situation deteriorated so much that he once again reached out to the VandeHei family for help.

At one point, Autumn says Kelvin contacted James, telling her son, “I am on the street. I have no place to go. Will your mom come get me?”

“As I got older, my mental health just got worse. I was becoming a very sad kid, an angry kid,” Kelvin, who is 19, says. “I lost my motivation.”

Kelvin’s brother Bryan cared deeply for him but felt unequipped to help him even with the aid of a cousin and their uncle, Autumn says.

“The sacrifice that Bryan made, the enormity of it, is hard to articulate. They had never been apart,” Autumn says. “He took the pain of perhaps losing him and doing what was best for Kelvin.”

After Kelvin moved in with the VandeHeis, the tumultuous years that followed included continuous therapy for behavioral issues and other problems, the family says. Still, he was surrounded by love.

“It takes a village, and Kelvin had a village of people who supported him,” Jim says. “He has a local, extended family who love him and were vital in helping Kelvin get to where he is today. His brother Bryan has been one of his best friends, and his cousin has been unbelievably helpful.”

Now, he’s in college, plays on the soccer team and engages easily. He even helped Diana attend nursing school by using money his uncle had been collecting for Kelvin from his Social Security benefit after the death of his parents.

But it took many years before Kelvin was able to reset.

“It was very difficult that first year, and when I say difficult I’m well equipped as a former social worker and have worked with abused children my entire career,” says Autumn, who has also worked in child and family welfare policy.

At the time, Autumn was simultaneously dealing with health issues including what’s known as “long COVID” and mourning the death of her own father.

“It was emotionally challenging for me, and my husband was absolutely amazing,” she says. “I have never seen a person exhibit the amount of unconditional love that I saw in Jim. I don’t even know if Kelvin noticed that I was struggling, but Jim just stepped into this gap and was a champion for him.”

Sophie, who is completing her final year of college this year, says she always felt like Kelvin was a member of their family.

“I can't imagine our family without Kelvin,” she says. “I truly believe our family wasn't complete without him."

Autumn says it’s frustrating when people tell her Kelvin was “so lucky to get you.”

“No, he wasn’t. His parents died, he went through horrific loss and trauma that no child should ever have to experience,” she says. “What came out of it was not us molding Kelvin. He had put on armor and finally felt secure enough to take the armor off and fully become Kelvin.” 

As for Kelvin, who is studying to be a journalist like Jim, he says that “I would not have gotten better if it wasn’t for my parents and my family.”

“My mom is the sweetest and the only mom I’ve ever really known, and my dad is a parent and best friend. I call them almost every day,” he says of Autumn and Jim. “I would not be here if not for them. They had a crucial impact on my life. And I love them.”

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